


letter for you, letter for me

by lasagna_writes (witty_lasagna)



Category: ENHYPEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Angst, Childhood Friends, Children, Comedy, Fluff, High School, How the Fuck Do I Tag, It Gets Sappy Quick, Light Angst, M/M, Other, Pen Pals, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, a couple i-land applicants show up but i didnt tag them bc they're only mentioned, dont show this to my irls, i just remembered to tag that lmao, i love them, idk how to tag, its mostly fluff hehe, its nearly midnight, jay is SUNSHINE and sunghoon is (repressed) SUNSHINE, jayhoon hit peak himbo energy 2gether, lapslock, they like writin letterz!, well i mean just at the beginning a lil bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28685655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witty_lasagna/pseuds/lasagna_writes
Summary: and so the bottle went on, to the next part of its journey, to the next chapter of its story. overcoming waves, sharks, mildly annoying seaweed, it slowly bobbed its way over the pacific. what would it see on the other side of the world? what new adventures would it encounter? how would its new chapter of life start?and that’s exactly how it started.alternatively: sunghoon as a child sends a letter in a bottle to find a new friend, which gets found by jay as a child, and they end up becoming pen pals for almost a decade. neither of them know they go to school together and are best friends.
Relationships: Park Jongseong | Jay & Park Sunghoon, Park Jongseong | Jay/Park Sunghoon
Comments: 20
Kudos: 72





	1. part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI so this was actually written in october and i had it like,, 5/6ths done?? and i only just remembered it lmao so IM HERE TO SAVE AO3 ENGENES FROM JAYHOON DROUGHT but also i'll upload the other 2 chaps when im done editing them + writing that last finale bit bc i dont remember ANYTHING about them,,
> 
> oh n you can take this series to be romantic, platonic whatevs you want! i saw it as platonic but if you wanna believe that at the end of this fic they smooch you do that babe 💋👍

they say that when you love something, it becomes your life. it’s a pretty weird concept to someone as young to understand, but some days he felt it even more than ever. nearly every day he’d have to watch the kids at school happily walk home with their parents while he got in the car and drove to the ice rink.

“but mommy, why can’t i play at their house?” he’d whine.

his mother would sigh in response. “sunghoon-ie, you know you have to go to practice. we’re paying so much!”

some days he’d complain for longer, but most times he just kept silent and stared out the window. after an hour, they’d be at the rink, he would change into skating clothes, and get on the ice with his class. then he kept on skating, forwards, backwards, in a circle, until he was so tired he was panting. to say the least, it was lonely.

afterwards, it was another hour back home, and then it was immediate dinner and straight to bed. sunghoon had kimchi pancakes for dinner, but they didn’t taste special anymore. his parents kept talking, something about mr. president, but sunghoon kept eating in silence, and after dumping his plate in the sink he went upstairs to read a story.

as he flipped through the book choices, the one with a honeybear on the cover or one about a seagull, he overheard his parents talking downstairs.

“i just don’t understand.. they say that kids this age talk so much, but he barely talks unless he has too...” his dad muttered.

sunghoon heard his mom hum in agreement. “i just want him to have someone his age to talk to, but because of his schedule, there’s nobody at school who can talk to him.”

of course, they were right, but sunghoon had heard this conversation so many times it didn’t even stir emotion in him. he went back to choosing books, and decided on the one about the seagull. he got on the bed and started reading outloud.

“samuel the seagull likes to fly. he spends a lot of time in the air. he goes very fast!” sunghoon read. as he slowly went through the picture book, which was about the seagull finding a message in a bottle leading him to find the crab that sent it and becoming friends, the bedroom door pushed open and revealed his father standing behind it. 

“hey, sunghoon… we were just wondering, it’s getting warm outside, shall we visit the beach? it’s a long weekend!”

“oh? sure! are we gonna pack?” he replied enthusiastically.

“mm, probably tomorrow. you can choose out stuff now until your mommy comes up if you want,” his dad said as he left the room as quickly as he entered.

immediately jumping up to his stack of stuffed animals, he started choosing his favorites and those who would be ok with protecting the house while they were out. in the middle of contemplating duck-kun and bunny-sensei, his eyes shifted back to the book.

_ “i just want him to have a friend.” _

_ “samuel the seagull finds a bottle.” _

_ “someone his age..” _

_ “it has a letter inside!!” _

_ “nobody at school…” _

_ “‘please be my friend! my address is 123 seaweed way. come over for kelp cakes!’” _

and with that, sunghoon pushed away all his stuffed animals and found a paper from under the desk in the room. it was kind of folded, but it would work. he found a cool pen and started thinking for two seconds, then started writing.

“hello! my name iz sung hoon. i am 7 years old. i like to is skat. pleas be my frend!”

what a beautiful letter. in even better handwriting, no less!! realistically it wouldn’t get much better for someone in 2nd grade, but it provided as much function as it had to. it got the point across, and that was all it needed. he rolled it up with a smile, satisfied. now all he needed was a bottle.

hopping down the stairs, he went and found the recycling bin and started looking for any soda bottles he could put the letter into. as he rummaged through the various papers and plastic boxes, he heard his mother coming.

“sunghoon?” she called. “what are you doing?”

he turned around quickly and showed off the scroll proudly.“i saw in a story that someone sent a letter in a bottle and i want to see if i can meet someone cool with it!”

his mom blinked twice. “okay then,” she said without much thought. “we have some bottles in the pantry, i was saving them to use one day.”

momentarily, she came out of the pantry with a thick bottle, and took the letter to roll it up tighter so it would fit inside. “what did you write, anyways?”

“secret!” sunghoon said

“okay then,” she chuckled as she put it inside. “are we gonna send it off tomorrow?”

“yeah!” 

“sounds like a plan!” his mom sealed the bottle as she muttered something to herself,  _ man i hope we dont get yelled at for this, _ but when she noticed sunghoon staring at her, she threw on a huge smile. he didn’t think too much of it later on.

the next day, sunghoon was full of energy to send off the bottle.

“do you think it can really make it across the ocean?” he asked as they got into the car.

“is a seagull going to steal my letter?!” he exclaimed as they went through a toll.

“what if water gets inside and all the ink disappears?” he realized as they searched for a parking spot.

“maybe they won’t like it?” sunghoon mumbled as they finally got to the edge of the sea.

“ _ relax, _ sunghoon. it’s going to be fine! now hide the bottle as we go into the water,” his father said.

“why?”

“legal reasons!” his father quickly said as sunghoon was lifted up and they waded into the sea.

they played in the waves for a few minutes, happily jumping up with the water, and then sunghoon was tapped on the shoulder. “this is probably a good time to send off that bottle,” his dad told him.

sunghoon looked at the bottle, and made a wish in his head.  _ please, whoever controls the seas, help me find a nice friend. someone that i can keep talking to and have fun with. someone i can be super happy with! _

he looked at the bottle one last time, and pushed it out into the ocean, watching it go alone. he waved to it as well, ignoring his father yelling, “OH NO! WE HAVE ON ACCIDENT LOST OUR BOTTLE! WELL I SUPPOSE IT IS TOO FAR TO RETRIEVE AGAIN, TOO BAD!” maybe one day he’d learn why his mom and dad were so suspicious around the bottle.

and so the bottle went on, to the next part of its journey, to the next chapter of its story. overcoming waves, sharks, mildly annoying seaweed, it slowly bobbed its way over the pacific. what would it see on the other side of the world? what new adventures would it encounter? how would its new chapter of life start?

and that’s exactly how it started.

after a few weeks of floating, it was rudely plucked from the water by a set of chubby hands belonging to a kid who suddenly screamed, “oh my gooooOOOOOOOOOD!!”

“what is it, jay?” the kid’s mother exclaimed as she ran over the sand, fearing something was wrong.

“there’s a message in this bottle!” he exclaimed as he proudly showed it to his mother. “let’s read it!”

“uh- okay-” his mother stammered as jay ran over to their spot on the beach to open it up and read it. the parks had been packing up for a move back to korea for weeks now, and before they left they wanted to have a trip to the beach to cheer up their only son, losing the friends he had been with all his life. it started out sad, but luckily the bottle had distracted him from the ongoing situation.

“it’s open!” jay announced to nobody in particular as he shook out all the sand that collected inside (with almost suspiciously no water). 

“well, what do you have here?” his father said, turning over from his little tanning session.

“a letter from a bottle!” he said again, even more excited than last time.

his dad got up. “is that so? would you like me or your mom to read it?” he asked as his mom finally caught up at the beach umbrella.

“sure!” jay shoved the paper at his dad’s face, and he reached for his glasses before looking at it. ms. park leaned over as well to observe it, and they both stared at it for a few minutes before coming up with a conclusion.

“i have no idea what this says,” they said together. quite frankly, i wouldn’t have expected them to either. 4th grade is when kids start discovering how to write properly, and there was still quite a lot of time until that.

“lemme see!” jay said as he took back the letter. he blinked once, then twice. “hello! my name is sunghoon. i like to ice skate. please be my friend!”

“how did you do that?” his mom asked.

“i’m still a kid, duh.”

“uh- ok?”

“anyways, let’s go back home so we can write a response!” he said, getting up quickly.

his dad tugged on his shirt to keep him in place. “hold it, kid, how are you even gonna write a letter back?”

jay pointed to the other side of the letter. “they wrote their name and address, and it’s in korean. so we can just write a letter back with our new house’s address. easy peasy lemon squeezy!!”

his mom shook her head while looking at the letter in disbelief. “a letter coming all the way from korea, somehow surviving the ocean, the letter written in english and the address in perfect korean but both with bad handwriting, and moreover we’re moving to korea next week, this is just too many coincidences it’s almost suspicious…”

after much negotiation from the parents, the family ended up staying at the beach for an hour more, with jay nearly forgetting about the letter. but the second they got back to the car, he found the bottle again in the basket of beach toys and began another session of bragging about it, which his parents decided was his “cool object of the week.”

“mommy, you’ve  _ got _ to teach me korean so i can reply!” jay said as he bounced up and down in his seat. to him, the possibilities were endless with the tiny letter in his hands. he could already be set with a new friend without even having stepped into korea!

“oh! you finally want to learn korean! oh, i’m so proud of you!” his mother looked towards her husband. “we finally did it!”

  1. park wiped tears from his eyes. “oh, jongseong… you’re finally realizing your real culture!”



“yeah yeah, just tell me what to write so we can get it done. RIGHT NOW.” jay stated.

the parks were silent. “right.. now?”

“yeah!”

his mother chuckled nervously. “well if you’re that eager then you can just tell me-”

“NO! i said that  **I** wanna write to sunghoon! me! right now!”

“honey, please, it’s much easier-”

“NO WAY! NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!!!”

it took much longer than it should’ve to get jay to agree to his mother writing the letter. his father had to restrain the child himself. but after much debate, they pushed out a child-esque letter in pristine hangul.

“ _ hello, sunghoon! _

_ my name is jay. i just turned 8! i’m from america but i am coming to korea. send another letter to my house. we’re gonna be good friends! _

_ park jongseong. _ ”

the letter was ready for its second journey. before it had experienced the sea, this time it found itself in a postal airplane back across the atlantic ocean. the soaring of the letter’s jet trilled, almost akin to the small child mimicking the sound of the plane on his own journey across the world to a new home, and a new friend. 

life was good, and calm.

however, if jay’s mother thought all those years ago the letter itself was a coincidence, she had a storm coming ahead of her.

years laters, and hundreds of letters past, our setting changes to a school. belift boys academy, to be exact. an extremely prestigious school you had to test to, and one that now-8th grader jay had his eyes set on. his parents had dropped him off at the entrance exam site, agreeing that their neighbor heeseung’s family would pick him up. 

goosebumps danced on his arms, but he calmed himself down thinking that afterwards he would relax by writing another letter. in the years past, he and his new pen pal had developed a system of letters. write the letter on saturday, send it on sunday, receive it on monday. it worked like clockwork, and it was jay’s turn to send his response.

as he navigated the huge maze of a school, he bumped into another kid, just barely taller than him but seeming much younger.

“oh- i’m so sorry!” they aplogized as they gave quick bows.

“no problem,” jay said. “uh, are you here for the entrance exam too? i’m lost, and it said my testing hall is room 23 but i don’t know where it is?”

“oh! my testing hall is near to it, i can guide you!” the kid said as he started walking. 

jay started following him. “so what brings you here?”

“me?” he asked. “well actually, i’ve been in athletics for so long. but i realized it was taking so much time out of my life, so i decided to focus on something else for a change. my friend told me about this one day, and i decided to try it out. i don’t seriously think i’ll make it though…”

“is that so? i have a friend a bit like you…” jay replied as they went up stairs. “it’s mainly my parents, but their choice was actually a different school. i realized that i didn’t want to do that and i thought that if i’m going to be putting so much on the line, this was the much better option. i also think their theater team is pretty cool, i was going to check it out at some point…”

“you sure seem like the type to talk a lot!” he said, chuckling.

“really? i actually don’t spend much time talking out loud these days, i usually write my thoughts down…”

“ah, texting!” the kid said, turning the corner. “same, these days it seems like our generation is much more comfortable on the internet.”

“oh- yes, texting…” jay said, unable to tell the other that he’s spent years writing letters to someone he’s never even seen.

the stranger started counting rooms. “21, 22, ah- 23!” he exclaimed as they reached his testing hall. 

“wow, that was fast, thanks a bunch!” jay exclaimed. that was a waste of pacing on his own. “by the way, i never introduced myself. you can call me jay! maybe we’ll see each other again next year!”

“oh, jay? that seems like a super popular nickname these days.”

“i know, right?”

“well, it was nice to meet you, jay. my name’s sunghoon, good luck on the test!”

“you too!”

and with a final bow, they departed. but as he was about to enter the room, he quickly jerked back just to see him gone.

_ sunghoon? _ he thought in his head, mind racing.  _ no, it’s probably not the same person. he didn’t seem to be the right one… _

little did he know that as much information jay himself was holding back, the new kid was holding back the same amount. and months later, when acceptance letters arrived, neither of them knew that they’d have 4 more years of holding back secrets ahead of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave comments im so lonely (we now accept comments that just say "DJFSDKDKJSAKSAD" !!)


	2. part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI AGAIN yea im spoiling yall 💋💋 turns out part 2 didnt need too much editing so here you go?? hopefully it isnt terrible that would b awkward 😫 anyways part 3 mIght take a lil more time bc i did not realize how much more it needed so if it doesnt upload tmrw same time you can bet on it being the day after bc its just fanfic you shouldnt need to think too hard abt it

years ago, two to be exact, jay park received a particular acceptance letter from belift boys academy, and started getting used to wearing a blazer 5/7 days a week. at the time, he decided that it would be a pretty good decision. it would get him where he wanted in life, and it was a challenge he was okay with going through. 

today, he regrets that decision as he realizes that he has no idea what is going on in class and is on the verge of falling asleep. 

it was friday, and moreover the last class of the day, so he was more tired than anything. in fact, he had spent more time than he’d like to admit drawing on the corner of his paper, so when he was tapped on his shoulder and received the stack of papers that were being passed down the class, needless to say he was confused.

“gifted students,” huh? maybe in photos and on paper, but  _ far _ from that in reality.

as people started getting into groups, jay looked around panickedly and ended up turning around in his seat to face the person behind him.

“uh, heeseung? what are we doing?” he asked quietly.

“hm?” heeseung blinked. jay quickly realized he didn’t know what he was doing either, so he went to a different person.

“jungwon, do  _ you _ know what we’re supposed to be doing for this?”

the kid in question looked up at him. “i thought you’d know…”

“oh gosh…”

jay looked around the class. people were starting to work on the sheet, and from the looks of how focused they were, it was due by the end of class. it seemed like as a last resort, he’d have to ask…  _ him. _

he walked over to the corner of the classroom where a certain boy with dyed brown hair was sitting, and inhaled.

“ok look, i know i always ask you for help, but maybe just one more time?” jay implored of the boy sitting down.

he chuckled. “jeez, jay,” sunghoon said as he looked up. “at this rate, i might as well change my name to ‘park google.’”

yes, dear reader, it is true. two years ago, on the same day jay received his acceptance letter, so did sunghoon on the other side of the town. and now they go to school together. lovely, isn’t it? not quite, as you might learn soon.

“we’re doing the odd numbers in class and even numbers for homework,” sunghoon explained. “we can use textbooks if we want but i left mine at home so i’m just going off of what i remember. you can be my partner if you’d like.”

“oh, i have my textbook, this works out!” jay said as he turned around to get his textbook. “gosh, sunghoon, i don’t know what i’d do without you.”

“you’d probably fail.”

“shut up.”

and so they slowly got through the problems on the worksheet, doing them a little on their own and checking in with each other to make sure they were on the same page, and looking at the textbook in between too. eventually the bell finally rang, and the students were free to go home.

“ugh, finally!” jungwon groaned as everyone started packing up to rush out the door. “i can’t wait to do  _ anything _ other than school.”

heeseung patted jungwon on the back. “same. i’m planning to have a bit of fun on the weekend!”

“we’re gonna have to cut it tight, the unit test for math is coming up,” sunghoon said as the group walked out the door of the school. 

“WAIT UUUUUUUUUUUP!!!” a loud and very young voice called out from the other door of the school. 

“sunoo, quiet down!” called jake as he tried to keep up with the (unfortunately) taller kid.

jay felt a heavy weight on his back, as someone had decided to jump on it. “were you really going to leave us behind again?” niki complained.

“oh no, we’ve had our lesson from that incident,” jay said as he remembered when they almost left the other class behind.

everyday, the kids would walk home together, or at least to a point where they could be picked up by their parents. jay, heeseung, and sunoo walked. niki and jake skated. sunghoon and jungwon got picked up by their parents at a local grocery store. it was a system that worked between families and ensured everyone’s safety in a scary world. plus, easy excercise, as much of niki whined and cried and complained about his legs hurting more than ever, ever,  _ ever  _ before.

the seven of them kept walking down the street in a pack, with laughter all around, and light-hearted conversation.

“oh! i just remembered,” sunoo suddenly said before he turned the corner for his house. “it’s the weekend, how about we all go to a movie together? it would be pretty fun!”

“really? that sounds fun!” heeseung said.

jake took out his phone to make a reminder. “when should we do it?”

“we can go on saturday, around 5 or 6 pm?” mumbled sunoo.

“oh i’d love to go-” jay started, until he realized something very important. “-eeeexcept i cant! because i’m super busy on the weekend! super busy, lots to do!”

“really?” niki said as he picked up his skateboard. “are you studying for that test everyone’s been talking about?”

“uh- yes! the. test! studying! grades!” jay said quickly to avoid the topic.

“...okay?” sunghoon said as he stared at jay funnily. “well we could always reschedule it to another date! isn’t next thursday a holiday?”

“oh no, you guys go without me! i watch a  _ bunch _ of movies anyways, it’ll be fine.”

“well, alright then,” sunoo said as he turned the corner. “see you guys there!”

everyone waited for him to safely go inside his house, and continued on their adventure of the walking bus, quickly forgetting about the ordeal. eventually, jake and niki had already gone home and jay’s house was coming up.

“are you actually okay with us going without you?” jungwon asked as jay turned to go down the driveway.

“what? of course,” jay replied. he noticed that jungwon hadn’t said much until then, but chose to ignore it.

“if you say so.”

“bye jay!” heeseung said cheerily. 

“bye guys!” he unlocked the door and went inside, looking back again to confirm he had infact gone inside. and after closing the door, he threw down his bag and ran upstairs to freshen up so he could start on the next part of his day:

the letter.

he speeded through his after-school skincare routine and went to the office room of the house. over the years it had been stocked with various materials specifically for letters, from papers to pens to flowers.

last week’s letter from sunghoon was still sitting on the table, and jay had already read it 10 times over. it didn’t change in sincerity either time, if anything jay only felt happier reading the letter that was spotted in red papers and stamps. in the letter, sunghoon had talked about how the last week had went (apparently he ended up at school after hours the entire week to help teachers and get extra credit), and he complained about the post office worker again. jay had never seen her himself, given that sunghoon’s p.o. box was hours away from him, but from the amount of times sunghoon complains about their encounters whenever he tries to pick up and deliver letters, he can tell that she’s not too pleasant. i think anyone would be able to figure that out, actually.

one section of the letter, however, caught his eye.

_ “our relationship is kind of weird, you know. we’re friends, but not friends friends because we’ve never seen each other. but we know that we are friends because we talk so much together. i think that we’re just existing and enjoying each other’s presence, even if we live hours away from each other.  _

_ “and i like it. i like us.” _

the section had made jay angry. but not in the way you’d think he was. jay was angry because sunghoon managed to say the exact thing he had been thinking all these years, and he said it _better._ which meant that jay would have to try harder this time to one-up him.

he went through the different papers.  _ should i try a blue theme today? _ jay thought in his head, and looked at the time on his watch. there was quite a bit of time until his parents got there, so he had a little extra time for the letter. he decided on a variety of papers with blue hues, and looked through the drawers for the glue sticks.

sitting down at the desk, he took the papers, and looked at them with a certain focus, making a plan for his next moves. which ones would sunghoon like? which ones would make him feel impressed? jay organized selections of papers into “letter, notes, and pure aesthetic” piles. then, satisfied with what he had chosen, he ripped them. not into shreds, just into pieces that could be put back together again. he arranged the papers into a frame-like formation, blue parchment paper on the edges and thicker paper on the insides. he got out the gluestick once he was satisfied, and glued everything together. 

the next step was the letter itself. this part was always the hardest, no matter how many years passed. jay took in a deep breath, tried not to concentrate too much on the letter itself, and started writing out what his mind told him.

_ hi sunghoon, _

_ is the new semester holding up fine for you? these days i’m not doing so well… i’m not sure why, though. i’ve been studying as much as i can but somehow my grades remain below the 90%. my grades are fine for the most part, but if could pull them up a bit that would be nice. _

_ oh wait, sorry for ranting about school. ever since joining that dumb academy it’s been on my mind nearly all the time. maybe i should have stayed back like i was thinking in the beginning? _

_ it’s getting chilly outside, make sure to wear your jacket! you used to be a figure skater so you’re probably used to cold environments, but that doesn’t make you immune to sickness. take care of yourself, sunghoon. it’s gonna be super annoying if you die of a common cold. _

_ (that was a joke ^-^) (but seriously start bundling up i swear) _

_ half of my friend group are first years, so they’re so full of energy. i miss those days… i miss being young in general. i guess i shouldn’t compare youth to them because one of the first years is actually my age, he just happened to join the academy this year. that’s super confusing to deal with,, but what i’m saying is that, well, i liked the days where i was really innocent? _

_ i thought that paragraph was getting long so i started a new one. back when i was just a kid, i would run about and have fun and not care about anything at all. it was just get up, dress, and figure out what big adventure i’d be having that day. it was fun, i liked it. sometimes i just really want to go back. _

_ oh, and there was also the whole letter writing thing. i actually kept your letters across the years. i find it nostalgic to go back in the past letters and seeing how your life has changed across the years.  _

_ and, i guess, my life too.  _

_ isn’t it amazing how we’ve stuck here together, writing letters without fail, making sure the other person was okay all throughout, you know? i’m not sure, but reading over our past letters has been really nice for me. i’ve read over them thousands of times, but somehow your words of kindness still make me happy today. i hope i do the same. _

_ while i’m at it, thanks for what you said in the last letter. i do like the little relationship we have. i like being us. you’re a really good person, sunghoon. thanks for listening to me all these years. _

_ wait also im pretty sure i sounded so cringe when i was young so like… if you kept the letters too, please burn them. preferably with gasoline. i can’t bear to think about them. _

_ you know, i think we’re coming up on a letter anniversary soon. it’s been… wait let me count. we started when i was 8 and i’m 17 now… it’s been 10 years? damn, that’s a long time. _

_ we really managed 10 years without meeting in person, huh? _

and there it was, the truth. i wish i didn’t have to break the mood, but the thing is, all these years? jay and sunghoon, they  _ never _ told anything to each other about the letters. call it fear of being laughed at for the letter concept, or fear of the other person being the wrong one, they didn’t want to talk about it. and somehow they’ve stuck like that for the past 2 years at the same school.

_ oh man, this letter is getting too long. i’m almost running out of space, i might have to add more paper. i hope you liked the theme this time! i’ll try to add more things you like. _

_ until next time, _

_ -j _

jay looked at the letter. his original intent was to just sound cooler than sunghoon, but he had accidentally poured random emotions into it. he blinked and looked away, blushing red.  _ if i look at this anymore i’m going to go bald from embarrassment. let’s just move on. _

it was a good thing he had been doing this for so many years that he didn’t need a plan anymore or a second writing of a letter, he just let things happen. he snatched a gaze at his watch. there was around 45 minutes until his parents would be back and he’d have to start studying. he decided to first head out for a bit, carrying a polaroid camera with him.

he walked around the park his house was by, and discovered some periwinkle-colored flowers. sunghoon talked about these types of flowers at some point, jay remembered, claiming there were a lot where he lived. 

after careful consideration on whether they were weeds or actual flowers, he decided on them being the real thing because of their strategic arrangement in the mulch. jay walked for a bit more, taking pictures with the polaroid of as many things as he could. the sky, the playground, the trees, his hand? how did that get in there? anyways, for only having the polaroid camera as a prize from a middle school fundraiser event, jay was surprisingly skilled at it.

he looked at the time again, and decided to head back, pictures and flowers safe in his little bag. entering the letter room once more, jay started taking out ribbon, paint markers, stickers, an envelope, and a candle. 

he folded the letter carefully for the specially sized envelope, and put it inside. the just developed polaroids were laid out on the table, and jay looked at them for a while. “sunghoon likes a little darker aesthetic these days,” he mumbled as he chose on the picture of the clouds, the trees, and cheekily put the hand picture in as well. after struggling for a bit, the candle was lit, and while jay waited for it to start melting he started decorating the envelope. ribbon was put on the sides. cute line stickers were stuck everywhere. he used the paint markers to write “cloud” on the top in english calligraphy, as was matching the blue nature theme of the letter.

the candle, colored royal blue and smelling like an unfamiliar sort of tea, was finally ready for the seal. jay took it and leaned it over the mouth of the package with expertise. it slowly dripped, but eventually a small puddle had formed and he quickly got the small flowers to put in the wax. jay ran through the 5 seals he owned (gave to him as a christmas present from a distant relative), and chose the one with an eagle on it. it was placed on the wax to dry, and in a few minutes it was all dry. 

jay chose a larger and thicker envelope to put the main envelope in because modern mail systems just didn’t treat letters with care anymore, so it gave a little protection. and then came the final touch: the name, the p.o. box address, and a stamp. he stepped back, and smiled. 

sometimes jay would wonder if it was even worth all this when he had never even met sunghoon. well, of course, he met sunghoon from school a few years ago, but school sunghoon’s not letter sunghoon. school sunghoon has never made jay as happy as letter sunghoon. school sunghoon’s just a school friend. letter sunghoon is more than that. 

and that’s why he kept sending letters, because he wouldn’t be the way he was if it wasn’t for him.

anyways, that all didn’t matter. the letter was ready to be sent, and tomorrow morning he’d head down to the post office to deliver it. now there was nothing to do but-

“JONGSEONG PARK, HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR GRADES TODAY?!?!”

study. he sighed to himself, and yelled back to his mom about him having everything taken care of. soon, the letter would be sent to a certain postal box near a certain government office, picked up by a certain father before leaving to go home, and read by a certain park sunghoon to reply back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so just imagine that jay and sunghoon don't actually send their letters to each other's houses in the present day and they use a p.o. box instead that are near to their respective parents' workplace and bc thats not near to them at all it throws them off n makes them both be like "yea school friend =/= letter friend bc im knowledge 👍👍"
> 
> anyways please comment i beg of you i literally feed off of comments and i am hungry so blease


	3. part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see i TOLD YALL that if not yesterday i'd upload it today AND HERE I AM!! anyways after much salvaging this is the final part of the penpal jayhoon trilogy. pleas enjoy!!

“alright, so now that the presentation is over, i’m going to go over the instructions for our end-of-term project,” mr. jung told the history class. “you’re going to be making a poster for the korean war in partners. everyone will be given something to focus on, and you can make timelines, charts, explanations, and anything else that fits. it shouldn’t be too hard, i’m trying to give you guys a little less stress for the end of term, so have fun?”

korean history wasn’t too bad for sunghoon. the class was easy, the teacher was nice, (albeit scary with his 6’1” stature), and he had his friends by him. moreover, sunghoon had experience in making things visually appealing from his years of writing to letter-jay, so this project didn’t seem like a threat to him.

in fact, if he just teamed up with heeseung, he wouldn’t have any prob-

“hey, geonu, can we work together? sweet!” called out heeseung from the desk behind sunghoon, and just like that one candidate was off.

it didn’t matter, though, because ni-ki was just as good at-

“daniel, you’re really good at this stuff, right?” ni-ki asked. “mind if i join you for this project?”

“of course!” daniel said, breaking sunghoon’s plans into pieces.

sunghoon looked around the class. people were starting to team up together, and from the looks of it, all the people he would normally ask to team up with were already partnered up. there were barely any people left. it seemed like as a last resort, he’d have to ask…  _ him. _

or, i guess,  _ he _ would ask sunghoon. a sudden hand clapped his back, and sunghoon turned back quickly to see jay smiling at him. “sunghoon! it’s been a long time since we’ve worked on something together, hasn’t it?”

“you literally asked for my answers on the math test review sheet last week,” sunghoon said sarcastically.

“yes, well, one week is a pretty long time!”

sunghoon sighed to himself. “it really is, in ways you wouldn’t understand.”

“i’m going to ignore that. anyways, do you want to do a photo collage or a bunch of drawings?” asked jay. “i’m pretty good at photography.”

“really? you don’t seem like the type.”

“it’s a hobby! i learned for a friend.”

“gotcha. your instagram photos must be really good then.”

“i won’t lie, i do take good pictures.”

sunghoon chuckled to himself at jay’s joke. “anyways, i don’t think it’s too good to do a photo collage because it’s only fun if you take the photos yourself, and we’re pretty far from where a lot of our information is at.”

jay hummed. “that’s true. are you good at art, then?”

he smiled. “i know the basics. like, i can write pretty and make cute pictures, but i can’t paint a portrait or anything like that.”

“dang, i didn’t expect that from you. you always seemed like either a stem kid or an athletics kid,” jay said.

“i’ll take that as a compliment,” sunghoon said. “anyways, i have a few ideas.”

the two of them discussed concepts for the poster with the little remaining time they had, drawing on the blank board with their fingers to symbolize where things could be put and determining what information they needed. they were just two people actually doing their work and having fun with it and using the skills they have and bouncing off of each other’s skills and ideas. it was harmony between them.

jay clicked his tongue as he turned to look at the clock ticking closer to the end of school, slightly frustrated. “i don’t think we can get this done in class today.”

“yeah, it’s gonna take a long time if we really wanna make it good…” sunghoon mumbled in return. 

jay gasped with an idea, and turned to sunghoon. “is it ok if we take it home or something so we can work on this?”

sunghoon looked at him, and then started thinking. he usually didn’t bring any friends over to his house, so this would be a pretty good opportunity to show his family that he actually wasn’t a loner.

but also, it would be on really short notice, and he wasn’t sure how his parents would react to it.

and then again, sunghoon thought that jay was a pretty nice person and this could help them get closer instead of just being in the same friend group.

but what if jay saw the letters? what if he thought sunghoon was writing about him instead of letter-jay and their relationship was ruined from awkwardness? or worse, what if he thought that the whole letter thing was stupid?

_ oh, shut up, you stuck-in-2009 scrawny emo wannabe, _ the second voice in sunghoon’s head, confidence, told to the negative thoughts.  _ literally just let him come over. at most he sees a couple pieces of papers and thinks we’re weird. big deal! there are kids on reddit who are weirder. literally nothing will go wrong if you let him come over, so just do it. _

“sure thing!” sunghoon said after his thinking session was over. “you can ride home with me and we’ll try to get as much done as possible at my house.”

“really?” asked jay, the bell ringing in the background. “that’s great! i’ll just text my dad and then i’ll come on out with you guys to go home.”

“sounds like a plan!” sunghoon said, but inside, he was still worried that jay would find out about his decade-long secret.

this time, the walk home seemed to be shorter than ever. maybe it was because instead of slowly losing members of the group along the way and the conversations becoming shorter, jay was brought along and there wasn’t a second where he wasn’t talking about something or other. it was like he was an automatic topic generator, and he made pretty good topics because sunghoon laughed a lot on the way back home. before long, sunghoon’s mom came to pick up the two boys.

“hey, mom!” said sunghoon as he got into the van. “me and jay have to work on this project thing and i told him that he could come over. that’s okay, right?”

“oh, of course! hi, dear,” she said to jay with a little bow as he got into the car. “you must be one of the friends sunghoon walks home with!”

“yeah, i’m one of the first ones to go home. i have the blue door,” he replied as he put on his seatbelt. 

“ah, i remember! i think i visited that block around chuseok a few years ago. i’d be glad to take you home!” ms. park looked to her son in the passenger seat. “you don’t usually bring over friends though. this is a first!”

jay looked at sunghoon from the back seat. “really?”

“it’s true!” his mom exclaimed. “normally the only friend he ever talks to is j-”

“-just a friend from ice skating! yeah!” sunghoon said quickly, earning a confused stare from his mom after it.

“oooh, so i’m the first new friend! that must be pretty cool,” jay replied happily. he didn’t seem to notice anything off.

to sunghoon’s overall relief, his mom started up the car and began a conversation with jay about graduation, scholarships, and much more. he relaxed. so far it was going good, and it didn’t seem like jay was noticing anything off. in his eyes, sunghoon was still a serious, smart, straight-a student who was straight to the point and didn’t spend time cutting paper and gluing it together. he was safe.

eventually, they made it to sunghoon’s house, with him leading jay to his room after taking off their shoes, leaving their bags at the door, and greeting his dad, sister, and dog.

“wow, your room is really cool!” jay exclaimed. “i’ve only seen setups like this on instagram. my room is  _ so _ messy.”

sunghoon chuckled. “it’s really not much. i guess i’m just a tidy type of guy.”

“you’re literally not wrong, these trophies are gleaming!” he said as he looked at sunghoon’s trophy case, standing at a distance to not break anything.

“well, i guess i do get bored sometimes… anyways, do you want to eat anything?”

jay shook his head. “my mom would get mad if i got full here instead of dinner.”

sunghoon nodded, familiar of the typical Asian Mom. “then i guess we can get started on the poster now so that we can chill later.”

“yeah, one sec,” jay said as he pulled the poster board paper from the cup-holder on his backpack. “it’s okay if i put it on your desk, right?”

“mhm! that’s fine,” sunghoon said as he went to get some materials from various nooks and crannies. he thought to himself,  _ which markers can we use? i guess i could go with the brush pens because my posca ones are dri- _

“ooooo, what’s this?”

sunghoon whipped his head around. his eyes landed on jay having a piece of paper in his hands. one that wasn’t his.

it was a letter that sunghoon left behind to finish later.

“no WAIT-” sunghoon exclaimed, but it was too late. jay was already scanning through it.

“...you can do calligraphy?” jay asked.

“oh! yes!” he brought up the markers he had just selected. “it’s. um. its a hobby! i just don’t talk about it too much because i. i don’t really feel like it.” _ hopefully it would throw jay off, _ sunghoon thought.

it didn’t.

he turned over the letter. “this stuff is like,  _ really _ impressive. do you do bullet journaling or something?”

sunghoon started realizing that jay was closer to realizing the truth about him. “um. not… exactly?”

“oh? this is still really cool,” he said light-heartedly with a proud smile. sunghoon relaxed. 

_ maybe he’ll just leave the letter alone on his own and i won’t have to do anything more, _ he thought as he turned away to go back to the markers.

of course, he was wrong.

“oh wait, do you do pen pal or something?”

sunghoon froze. he inhaled deeply, and turned around. “well actually, that is from my da-”

“dude, that’s so cool!” jay exclaimed as his eyes sparkled. “i literally do pen pals too, this is awesome? why didn’t you tell me?”

“uhh…” sunghoon mumbled as started fumbling with his fingers. “i actually do it a lot. like, its an actual hobby that i spend a lot of time on. i just don’t talk about it much because it’s kinda… cringe.”

jay blinked, and sunghoon blinked back at him. if i wasn’t just a narrator, i would’ve literally used a knife to cut the silence. 

“did you.. did you really say ‘cringe?’ in this day and age?” jay said quietly.

“wh- IT’S AN APPROPRIATE WORD TO USE!” sunghoon exclaimed.

“I HAVENT HEARD IT BE USED SINCE 2016!”

“SHUT UP! maybe YOU’RE the cringe one here!”

“what? THIS IS BULLYING!” jay yelled, sarcastically horrified. “i’m literally going to report you to the faculty, say goodbye to your dream college!”

“they’re just scared of hearing the TRUTH!”

jay picked up a set of markers. “i will LITERALLY STAB YOU WITH COPIC MARKERS.”

sunghoon got onto the bed. “you fool, copic ink is my BLOOD! I AM THE SUPERIOR ONE HERE!”

they were both yelling as jay stabbed the air with the markers, but it wasn’t with an ounce of anger. they were both beaming ear to ear. 

jay and sunghoon. sunghoon and jay.

the both of them were being the friends that they had wanted all these years.

eventually they found each other flopped on the bed like starfish, out of breath. the adrenaline was, unfortunately starting to fade, and sunghoon took this moment to ask a question.

“you don’t think it’s weird for me to be this into writing letters, though?” he asked.

jay turned over to look at him. “why would i?”

“i dunno,” sunghoon said, also turning over to face jay. “i take it so seriously, i consider my pen pal to be my best friend and i consider them to have brought me this far in life, and i would really do anything for them. but at the end of the day, i’ve never even seen them. they’re just a bunch of letters.”

jay hummed to himself. “they must be really nice, then, right?”

“they are,” sunghoon told jay. “they really, really are.”

“that’s good,” jay replied with a soft smile. “i actually kind of feel the same way with my pen pal. like, i know that they make me happy and i do whatever i can to make them happy too. and sometimes i think, ‘is this even worth it? what am i even doing?’ you know what i mean, right?”

“yeah, i do.”

“yeah, so,” jay said, rolling back onto his back. “i just recently started thinking like this, i normally also hide the fact that i do this for a hobby, but like. if it makes us happy, why be ashamed of it? it’s just cool pieces of paper. it doesn’t affect anyone. if we weren’t able to be friends with some we had never met, the idol industry would be nothing.”

sunghoon snickered. “forget the idol industry, the entire internet would be nothing.”

“right?? so that’s what i think. my pen pal is amazing, and i really adore them, so i wouldn’t stop sending them letters. and neither should you.”

he nodded in agreement. “yeah. that makes sense.”

jay raised his arm up to stretch, bringing up sunghoon’s letter with it. “mhm. besides, i just think that-”

sunghoon looked over from the abrupt stop. “what happened?”

“new semester, kept letters, gasoline…” jay mumbled as he went through sunghoon’s unfinished letter, sitting up. “this is… this is my letter.”

“what?” asked sunghoon. “i wrote it?”

“no, no, no, this is- this is a reply to my letter. i sent a letter mentioning these stuff last week. to  _ my  _ penpal,” jay said, getting up. “are… are  _ you _ my penpal?”

sunghoon was so taken aback, he couldn’t think for a few seconds. “wait… you’re the park jay that sends me polaroids?”

“and you’re the park sunghoon that sends me pressed flowers?”

the two boys looked at each other in silence, mouths open but not a single noise coming from them. until they did. 

one chuckle, one laugh, one fit of laughter after two boys realized the truth after 10 years.

“how did we not even know?” jay managed through hysterics.

sunghoon raised up a finger, shaking from his own laughter. “hey, what’s your excuse? there are a million jays in korea, there aren’t a million sunghoons!”

“SHUT UP!”

“YOU shut up!”

once again they were flopped over each other on the bed, but this time in even more joy than ever. 

“man, we’re so dumb.” sunghoon said.

“we really are,” jay said, wiping his eyes. “my best friend was right in front of me all these years.”

“so was mine.”

jay got off of sunghoon. “you meant what you said about me, right?”

he sat up and looked jay in the eyes. “did you mean it too?”

“absolutely.”

sunghoon smiled. “i really meant it too.”

“so.” jay said, turning around. “i guess this poster won’t make itself.”

sunghoon stood next to him to look at the blank canvas of a poster. “i’ve been training for this moment my whole life.”

they say that when you love something, it becomes your life. life is happiness, and you love something that makes you happy. and as we have now learned, there is no love, life, or happiness given in a better form than a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> KKEUT!! thats it thats the end! i really hope you enjoyed bc idk abt you, i had the time of my life making this fic :) 
> 
> if you have anything you'd like to say, even if it's criticism, please do say it!! i take it pretty well imo and i'll improve based on it. but if you dont have anything to criticize please please pLEASE leave a comment anyways bc i rlly like them and it makes me know you actually liked it instead of just hitting the kudos button for the sake of it :]] 
> 
> anyways the end, that is all from me, stan jayhoon, stan enhypen, have a good day n stay safe babes
> 
> (oh and my tumblr is celestial-lasagna if you even wanted it)


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